Robert Jordan

[tmcg]

A few minutes ago, I heard from another author on the phone that Robert Jordan had died.

I started copyediting his books with The Shadow Rising, in 1992. When you work on a long-running series for so many years, you develop a strangely personal relationship with the author even if you never meet face-to-face or speak over the phone, and I feel...bereaved, in a way that's hard to articulate. And frustrated, with a shake-your-fist-at-the-universe kind of anger. The Wheel of Time was the grand work of a lifetime, and he should have had the lifetime to complete it.


Making Light, with many more links in the comments

Dragonmount (server appears to be overwhelmed)

Associated Press release, via Google

The longer AP obituary via the New York Times

A mirror of his cousin Wilson's statement

The Robert Jordan Memorial Forum at TarValon.net

Comments

[terrymcgarry.livejournal.com]

It came up sometimes on convention panels, but not too much in online conversation, beyond explanations of why I was missing, say, a WFC because of a rush job. Locus mentioned it in an article once, but that's pretty unusual.

His books do convey goodheartedness and intelligence; I was (and am, since the books live on) immensely fond of that narrative sentience.